Sig Christenson is a veteran military reporter who has made nine trips to the war zone. He writes regularly for Hearst about service members, veterans and heroes, among other topics. He is also the co-founder and former president of Military Reporters and Editors, founded in 2002.

Centerpieces

03/24/2013

The war in Iraq had been under way for two weeks when the invading
3rd Infantry Division reached a critical bridge crossing the Euphrates
River, where U.S. troops expected fierce resistance. (See story, "A look back at decade of Iraq, here.)

Capt. Shad Magann,
commander of two close air support teams directing aerial attacks at
the front of the invasion, had to decide how to cross the 900-foot span.
As the armored column idled, he gave the order: make a mad dash in his
lightly armored Humvee.

The sprint across the bridge at Objective Peach the afternoon of
April 2, 2003, looked so suicidal that Magann's radio operator and
driver, Senior Airman Dan Housley,
questioned the order and then said a prayer — and so began the first of
two battles that sealed the invasion of Iraq, though not the long and
bitter war to come.

“Obstacle-wise, that was our last major hurdle to get over,” said retired Army Maj. Gen. Buford Blount III, who commanded the 3rd Infantry Division during the invasion and occupation.

“We knew we still had a Republican Guard division to fight through,
but we knew we could defeat them, and then once we got to Baghdad we'd
have the Special Republican Guard to fight,” he said, adding that
victory was inevitable. “That was really the choke point where they
could have put up substantial resistance and hindered our progress.”

Hundreds, if not thousands, of Iraqis died in a pair of major battles
at the bridge, with two Americans killed and two others injured.

But the path was cleared, and the fall of Baghdad a week later ended
the “shock and awe” phase of the campaign to remove dictator Saddam Hussein from power and give the country a chance to build a democracy.

Last week marked the 10th anniversary of the invasion, which sparked
an insurgency that drew American and coalition forces into a costly and
prolonged conflict that cost the lives of 4,800 coalition troops and
untold Iraqis, wounded tens of thousands and drew heated debate over
whether the war was necessary.

It also launched an era of asymmetrical war and the use of
increasingly sophisticated roadside bombs that have taken a huge toll on
troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.